The Observer, December 2003

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Shipboard firefighting symposium shows how powerful partnership can be

By John S. Devens, Ph.D.
Executive Director

Many Alaskans probably think of the citizens’ council as being in constant conflict with the oil industry.

It’s true the council was born of crisis – the Exxon Valdez oil spill – and spent many of its early years in head-to-head confrontations with the industry over safety and pollution issues raised by that spill. And it’s true that we still frequently disagree with the industry, as you can see in articles elsewhere in this issue of the Observer.

But it’s also true that many of the council’s significant accomplishments have come from partnering with the industry, a goal Congress laid out after the Exxon Valdez spill in the Oil Pollution Act of 1990. One example of this is the series of technical studies in the mid-1990s that led to the fleet of rescue and response tugs that now escort loaded oil tankers out of Prince William Sound. Another is the iceberg-detection radar system that recently began operating on Reef Island.

Yet another example occurred early in October when some 70 firefighters from all over coastal Alaska gathered in Valdez for a training symposium on fighting shipboard fires. The council, as it has done twice before, organized the symposium and paid much of its cost. But the event would not have been possible without the support of numerous partners, many of them from the oil industry.

This training is important because, in most coastal communities, land-based firefighters accustomed to battling blazes in buildings are the only forces available to deal with fires on ships.

And a fire on a ship is a different and dangerous animal, because of the confined spaces, the possible presence of hazardous cargo, and the danger that the same water used to fight the fire will collect in the ship and sink it.

The curriculum at our October symposium – as shown in the photographs on page 7 – included live exercises with hands-on training for fighting fires on small vessels, at tank farms, and on oil tankers.

The challenge was, where do you find a small vessel, a tank farm, and an oil tanker whose owners are willing to allow several dozen firefighters to tramp through?

In this case, it was the Southwest Alaska Pilots Association that provided the small vessel, a pilot boat called the Emerald Island, and even allowed it to be filled with stage smoke for added realism during the exercise. ConocoPhillips conducted tours of its double-hull tanker, the Polar Resolution, while the vessel was berthed to load oil at Alyeska’s Valdez terminal. And Petrostar managers led the trainees through the company’s Valdez tank farm, including a climb to the top of one of the tanks.

There were many other partners in this endeavor, as well, including the Alaska Division of Emergency Services; Tatitlek Chenega Chugach (TCC); Prince William Sound Community College; the City of Valdez; Alaska Tanker Company; SeaRiver Maritime; Crowley Marine; and Alyeska Pipeline Service Co.

We thought the training went well, and so did the participants. Here are some of the comments they wrote on evaluation forms at the symposium:

“Outstanding!”

“You’re doing great.”

“This symposium exceeded my expectations.”

“This gathering was very good and extremely worthwhile.”

When it came to ideas for improving future symposiums, the most common suggestions were to make them longer and to hold them more often.

While we haven’t yet decided how frequently to mount our firefighting symposiums, or how long to make the curriculum, we do know one thing: partnership is one of the most powerful tools available to citizens determined to make oil transportation as safe as possible.

Sometimes, confrontation is unavoidable in our line of work. But partnership is always preferable, and we’ll continue to use it whenever it is possible.